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April 30, 2008
Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress
I read a couple good reviews for Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game when it was released, and despite not being it's target audience, I figured I'd give it a whirl so I tossed it on my library hold list.
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Posted by dberger at 1:24 PM | Comments (1)
The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Has Gone Missing
This morning, shortly after I left for work, there was a large dumpster delivered to our driveway, and a short time later a crew arrived to start tearing off the old cedar shake roof and put on a new solid roof deck.
Tomorrow the shingles are roof-top delivered, and the whole thing should be done on Friday.
The old roof was going on 20 years old and hadn't been maintained (given the pitch of the roof, I can't say I'd have been keen to climb up there on a regular basis). Some shakes were missing, felt was visible, and it wasn't going to make it much longer without help. Oh, and the cost of composition roofing is trending up along with crude oil (it's a petroleum product, after all), so waiting wasn't going to make it cheaper.
Posted by dberger at 1:14 PM | Comments (0)
Bats
I heard on NPR this morning (Morning Edition is one of the positive side-effects of commuting by car) that there's a mystery disease wiping out the bat population in the north east.
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Posted by dberger at 9:23 AM | Comments (1)
April 27, 2008
You Suck: A Love Story
The other day I put holds on a handful of books from the library, including the only one of Chris Moore's works I'd missed to date: You Suck: A Love Story.
Since Dawnise has been dozing most of the day, I sat down and ending up ripping through it in an afternoon.
The end wasn't great (a trend?), and several of the characters carried over from Bloodsucking Fiends blurred together.
So it definitely suffered from "sequel syndrome," but still enjoyable.
Posted by dberger at 5:57 PM | Comments (0)
Whining About Being a Grup
Two weeks ago we wrote a rather sizable check for half of our new roof - and in about a week (weather permitting) when the job's done, we'll write another one just like it. We knew buying the house that it needed a roof, and we got a credit toward the cost from the sellers, but what that really means is we paid less for the house, and the roof's still coming out of our pocket.
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Posted by dberger at 5:45 PM | Comments (0)
The only reason politics exists...
...is to ensure that the people have the freedom to laugh.
- Rebo, Babylon 5: "Day of the Dead"
We had tickets for the Capitol Steps last night at the Paramount theater in Seattle.
A night of pure hilarity.
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Posted by dberger at 5:02 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2008
I'm a Terrible Patient
I've been sick since returning from Cabo. Nothing horrible - just a cold that's sapped my energy. Started a a sore throat and head ache, moved into my sinus toward the end of last week and turned me into a human snot machine. I'm not one to take a cold lying down - which frustrates the hell out of Dawnise...
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Posted by dberger at 8:39 AM | Comments (1)
April 17, 2008
Bags
I like to say I don't collect things, generally speaking, but I'm starting to wonder if that's really true...
I've mentioned my fascination with coffee makers before, and I'm still amassing music and fountain pens, but I try to be picky about the things I accumulate.
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Posted by dberger at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)
The New Cruelty
After arriving in Cabo to find my phone a useless brick, and spending a chunk of an afternoon playing physical hide-and-seek with one of the other team members who needed to find me to resolve a problem back in the office, I've ditched AT&T.
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Posted by dberger at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
A Dirty Job
Dawnise was kind enough to snag me a copy of A Dirty Job from the library before we left, and I turned to it pool-side after polishing off Neuromancer again (summary: it hasn't aged much).
I'm a big fan of Christopher Moore, he's funny, observant, and poingent - and Dirty Job was no exception. I found it's plot a tad predictable, and the ending unsatisfying, but I enjoyed it none-the-less. Not his strongest work (an honor I think goes to Lamb), but a solid showing.
Posted by dberger at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2008
Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time.
A handful of folks have reporting having my blog tell them "Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time." and suggesting they "try again in a short while."
Turns out the thing all these people had was that they were using the "preview" functionality, and the trivial (but effective at stopping blog post spam) CAPTCHA plugin I use hadn't been correctly hooked up to the preview template. I tried fixing that and it turned out to be non-trivial, so as a temporary thing I disabled Preview entirely.
So, Post or Post Not, there is no Preview.
Posted by dberger at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)
Vacation Recap
After fifteen (count 'em fifteen) hours, three flights, and a whole lot of hassle caused by the fact that our return flight from SDJ was booked on American Airlines we made it home this morning just after midnight.
We ended up getting booked on an Aero Mexico flight from SJD to Mexico city, had enough time to claim our bags, get through security, get to Alaska and get on a flight from Mexico City to LAX where we had to get off the plane, clear customs, get our bags, re-check our bags, leave the security perimeter, go-through security again, and get back on the same flight to Seattle. 15 hours, and not a decent meal all day.
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Posted by dberger at 5:02 PM | Comments (1)
April 3, 2008
It's been over a year, it must be time to get pissed @ AT&T again
In January of last year, I had a knock-down-drag-out with AT&TCingular.
I finally got someone on their end who knew their arse from their elbow who was able to add the Blackberry Data plan to my "old AT&T account" - something several other representatives insisted was impossible without "upgrading" to Cingular service (pay more, get less), and getting a new Sim and phone number and two year contract.
And having managed to avoid talking to anyone at Cingular since, I had forgotten how much I hate those guys... 'till tonight...
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Posted by dberger at 7:18 PM | Comments (0)
April 2, 2008
What Do You Do With An Old Dead Helmet
Now that I have a shiny new (safety yellow) Arai Profile, and Dawnise has a shiny new (red) Arai Quantum, I need to figure out what to do with our old helmets, both of which are past their use-by dates.
I hate the idea of throwing them away, and googling for "recycle motorcycle helmet" reveals nothing useful ("recycle old helmet" is slightly better, but reveals mostly folks bemoaning the fact that they can't find a way to recycle bicycle helmets).
I'm afraid to put them on freecycle or craigslist, 'cause some idiot will think he (or she)'s getting a bargain and expect an old well traveled helmet to provide actual protection, which it won't.
And yea, I know I can't stop stupidity in others, but that doesn't mean I should make it easy for someone to hurt themselves.
Anyone got any brilliant ideas?
Posted by dberger at 6:53 PM | Comments (0)
Gastronomic Remembrance
Dawnise and I went to the restaurant at the Newcastle golf club for a dinner of French Onion Soup (and iced tea, of course).
It wasn't Alan's soup, but it seemed a fitting way to observe the anniversary of his passing
Most of me can't believe it's already been a year.
Posted by dberger at 7:22 AM | Comments (0)